PARIS: France's Leon Marchand won his third Olympic gold medal and second of the night with a sensational victory in the men's 200m breaststroke on Wednesday.
Marchand had already won gold in the 200m butterfly earlier in the evening and he became the first swimmer to win those two events in the same Olympic Games.
The 22-year-old touched the wall in a time of 2min 5.85sec, a new Olympic record and the second fastest time of all-time.
Australia's Zac Stubblety-Cook, the defending champion from Tokyo, finished with silver 0.94 seconds behind with Caspar Corbeau of the Netherlands claiming bronze.
Remarkably the race was the first time Marchand had swum in the 200 breastroke in a major international competition but in his current form and with the deafening home crowd behind him there was simply no stopping him as he led from start to finish. --AFP